It's probably too early to start calling Christmas an enigma but it is strange to watch a guy with so much athleticism and such an impressive frame look so lost for long stretches of games. That said, it's early in his career.
But what I was thinking the other day was where do we see his career playing out? The two career paths I envision for him are Damone Brown (if things break right) and Terrence Roberts (if things are OK, but not great). As a baseline, the guy is too athletic and has too much size to be simply a non-factor.
Regardless, there are plenty of similarities. All three are in the 6-9 range and all had excellent athleticism (though Damone was probably not quite the athlete of the other two). None got off to auspicious beginnings as freshmen (Christmas was the best at around 3 ppg and 3 rpg). They are likely to post fairly similar sophomore seasons -- Damone went for 9.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg; Roberts went for 7 ppg and 4 rpg and and Xmas will probably end up somewhere around 7 ppg and 5 rpg, or thereabouts. Obviously Damone posted better numbers than the others, but fighting for PT with blackwell/etan/eric williams/elvir ovcina/shumpert as a frosh is much different that Keita/Coleman/Fair/Southerland/Grant, all of whom are really good players/prospects or Hak/Forth/Watkins/Pace/Nichols.
But after their sophomore seasons, Brown improved as a junior, then exploded as a senior displaying a decent shooting touch, jacking his rebounds up to almost 9/game and putting together a really, really good season.
Roberts, who battled some injury issues, never managed to figure out what he needed to do offensively. despite the potential, he largely finished his career as a catch-and-finish big man who rebounded well and defended decently.
Any thoughts as to where Christmas fits in? Pre-season I would have said Brown was the logical comp. Now I think I hedge toward somewhere in the middle -- maybe a 10 ppg, 8 rpg, 2 bpg type guy in 29-30 mpg?
But what I was thinking the other day was where do we see his career playing out? The two career paths I envision for him are Damone Brown (if things break right) and Terrence Roberts (if things are OK, but not great). As a baseline, the guy is too athletic and has too much size to be simply a non-factor.
Regardless, there are plenty of similarities. All three are in the 6-9 range and all had excellent athleticism (though Damone was probably not quite the athlete of the other two). None got off to auspicious beginnings as freshmen (Christmas was the best at around 3 ppg and 3 rpg). They are likely to post fairly similar sophomore seasons -- Damone went for 9.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg; Roberts went for 7 ppg and 4 rpg and and Xmas will probably end up somewhere around 7 ppg and 5 rpg, or thereabouts. Obviously Damone posted better numbers than the others, but fighting for PT with blackwell/etan/eric williams/elvir ovcina/shumpert as a frosh is much different that Keita/Coleman/Fair/Southerland/Grant, all of whom are really good players/prospects or Hak/Forth/Watkins/Pace/Nichols.
But after their sophomore seasons, Brown improved as a junior, then exploded as a senior displaying a decent shooting touch, jacking his rebounds up to almost 9/game and putting together a really, really good season.
Roberts, who battled some injury issues, never managed to figure out what he needed to do offensively. despite the potential, he largely finished his career as a catch-and-finish big man who rebounded well and defended decently.
Any thoughts as to where Christmas fits in? Pre-season I would have said Brown was the logical comp. Now I think I hedge toward somewhere in the middle -- maybe a 10 ppg, 8 rpg, 2 bpg type guy in 29-30 mpg?
